Since I managed to lock both my main and spare keys in the house, I have more time to write while Reid sleeps in the back seat and, if I’m lucky, while Ken comes home from the museum on the bus or at least hears my message and calls to tell me he’ll give me his keys if I come downtown. I finished my last message before looking for my keys. Since I was wrapping up a message that I’d worked on in elevators and on buses, I didn’t mind sitting in the dark. Now that I *can’t* go in, my neighbourhood seems creepy in the dark. :+/
After our failed attempt to watch the balloons take-off (if you don’t know about the balloons yet, go read the other message first) we picked Aunty Amanda (she told me she isn’t an “ie” auntie so don’t tell me I can’t spell :+) up nearly an hour earlier than planned and headed to Cora’s for breakfast. They’re nice enough to give little ramekins with Fruit Loops in them to small people like Reid while the food is cooking. Reid tasted one and stuck her tongue out to have me take it off. Since she still eats the no-sugar Nutrios, I gues the sugary goodness was a bit of a shock to her.
Melissa and Sarah joined us and we went to the Byward Market for fruits, and veggies. Fall is my favourite time in the market, I think. They are still bringing in strawberries from somewhere in Quebec but there are also apples and pears. We bought baskets of sweet peppers that contained a variety of colours, including white and purple. I looked for a peck of purple peppers but they must be hard to grow as they were sold only one to a basket of four. We went to the stall of the lady who makes polar fleece hats that look like animals. Reid needed a hat that said it was for kids 5-8 years of age. She really liked the fish hat and I did, too. As this was the same style Sarah chose, Sarah was pleased, too. While I checked on the various color-combinations for fish hats, Reid wandered about pushing the hat-maker’s child-sized grocery cart. What fun she had. The daycare people mentioned today that she’d been shopping there, too. I’m not sure what it says about how we spend our time. Since it was an outing that involved Melissa and me, we stopped for treats and a hot chocolate. Reid was only too happy to drink her hot chocolate from the little espresso cup I had asked for while I had a bowl to share from. It’s a European thing, I think, to put hot chocolate in bowls. Never say I don’t expose Reid to other cultures!
When we got back from the market, it was time for a nap and then time to assemble the slide that I had found at a yard sale just around the corner from Melissa’s. Ken did the heavy work while I provided not-necessarily-helpful advice (He thought that it was too bad that the one who had to assemble the slide wasn’t the one who had seen it disassembled and the one who *had* seen it taken apart hadn’t paid better attention.) Reid was so eager to slide that she kind of dragged herself along the sloped part as it lay on the lawn. It’s not a giant slide but it has a good slope and it’s in our backyard and so Reid is pleased with us. Now, I have to clean up the basement to make space for the slide over the winter. Soon she’ll be too big for the slide but I got a good deal and am sure I can re-sell it when she is done.
We had supper at Melissa’s Saturday night. Ken is worried that Reid will get hurt playing with the big kids but she has no such fear. He sticks close to her and she sticks close to Ben, Sarah and Stephen. At one point, Ben was behind the couch and Reid was following him. Melissa asked Ben if he thought that it was a good idea for him to be where he was and he said, “Yes”, though of course it wasn’t. At that point she told him he needed to be particularly conscious of his actions since Reid was emulating him and I noted that if Reid were asked “If Ben jumped off a bridge, would you?” she would answer, “yesh,” without hesitation.
I just heard from Ken and he’s on his way home. Hooray! (Sure am glad I used the bathroom before we left Melissa’s and resisted the urge to go to Tim Horton’s drive through for a tea.)